Lesson 10: Developing and Implementing Your Action Plan
The Action Project is the culminating stage of a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE). Throughout this unit, students have investigated how water moves through a watershed, explored how human activities influence water quality and ecosystem health, collected evidence through classroom and field investigations, and developed an evidence-based explanation about the health of their local watershed. Now it is time to answer the unit driving question: How can we make a positive impact on our watershed?
A hallmark of a MWEE is that learning leads to informed action. Students move beyond learning about sustainability to becoming environmental stewards who use evidence to make informed decisions and take meaningful action. In this lesson, students use the explanation they developed in Lesson 9 to design and implement an action plan that addresses a local watershed issue.
Action plans can take many forms. Students might restore or protect habitat, change everyday behaviors, educate others, or advocate for change in their school or community. Regardless of the type of project they choose, the action should be directly connected to the evidence they collected and the explanation they developed in Lesson 9.
The goal of this lesson is not simply to complete an action project. It is to help students recognize that they have the knowledge, skills, and ability to make a positive impact on their local watershed and become lifelong environmental stewards.
Materials:
Materials provided in the lesson 10 kit:
- Activity 1: n/a
- Activity 2: n/a
Materials you will need to gather:
- Lesson 10 slide show
- Activity 1: Types of Action worksheet
- Activity 2: Road Map to Action worksheet
Suggested Reading:
- Reading Connection: Old Enough to Save the Planet
Learning Objectives:
At the completion of the lesson, students will be able to:
- use evidence from their data synthesis in Lesson 9 to identify feasible actions that address the identified environmental issue
- develop and implement a plan for taking action to address the environmental issue using their synthesized data as justification
- Evaluate the impact of the action. (Possible assessment extension)
Activities:
Begin by revisiting the evidence-based explanations students developed in Lesson 9. Ask the class,
"What was the biggest message our evidence told us about the health of our watershed?"
Invite students to turn and talk with a partner about the patterns and connections that led to their conclusion. Then, ask a few students to share their thinking with the class.
Explain that understanding an environmental issue is only part of the work of environmental scientists. Once scientists understand a problem, they use evidence to determine what actions are most likely to make a positive difference. Students will now do the same by developing an action plan based on the evidence they collected throughout the unit.
Ask students to spend two minutes brainstorming ways people can help protect or improve the environment. Encourage them to share their ideas with a partner or small group before bringing the class back together. As students share, record their ideas where everyone can see them. Many students will initially suggest familiar actions such as recycling, picking up litter, or planting trees. Explain that these are excellent ideas, but they are only a few of the many ways people can take environmental action.
Distribute the Types of Action worksheet and introduce the Let's Act! presentation. Explain that environmental stewardship can take many forms depending on the issue being addressed. The presentation introduces four common types of environmental action:
- Watershed Restoration or Protection
- Everyday Choices
- Community Education and Engagement
- Civic Action
As you discuss each type of action, encourage students to think about how it connects to the environmental issue they identified in Lesson 9. Invite students to record examples of each action type on their guide and add any new ideas that emerge during the discussion.
Conclude by leading a class discussion about which type of action is the best fit for the evidence students collected throughout the unit. The class does not need to select a specific project yet; instead, the goal is to identify the type of action they will develop during Activity 2. Depending on your available time, resources, and community partnerships, you may wish to guide students toward a particular category of action that is realistic and achievable for your class.
Possible Extension:
Although giving students input into the chosen action plan is great, we realize that the amount of time any teacher can dedicate to this project varies greatly. This part of the lesson is great for "guiding" your students toward a specific type of action project by focusing on it as an example during the PowerPoint presentation. For example, if you would like the class to clear invasive species on the playground to address the issue you found, you could focus on the Watershed restoration or the protection type of project and use invasive species as an example in the discussion.
Possible Differentiation Adaptations:
The Let's Act Guide can be completed on a computer for students with difficulty with fine motor skills. Alternatively, students could be given the "Let's Act! Guide" key to paste into their science journal, drawing pictures of the examples listed.
Distribute the Guide: Hand out a "Road Map to Action" guide sheet to each student. This sheet helps students craft an action plan using the data synthesis from Lesson 9.
Start the Discussion: Read the first paragraph of the guide sheet aloud as students follow silently. Draw a parallel by asking students about planning for a long trip to relate to the planning process.
Identify the Environmental Issue: Students should refer to their notes and charts from Lesson 9 to articulate the environmental issue they previously identified. Encourage them to be specific; for instance, "Nutrient pollution is an issue in our area causing algae blooms due to excess nutrients."
Evidence of the Issue: Use data gathered in Lesson 9, displayed on anchor charts and notes, to support the identified issue. Have a quick talk on the importance of evidence in recognizing environmental problems and devising action plans.
Formulating Our Action Plan: Depending on the desired depth and classroom time, guide students to create either a simple "Everyday Choice" action or a more involved project. Use the questions below to guide the discussion.
- Does this plan directly address the issue at hand?
- Does this plan connect to the evidence?
- Is this plan reasonable for the time and resources we have?
Small groups can write their action plans on chart paper and present them to the class. Discuss and possibly vote on the best action to undertake as a class, asking critical questions about the action's relevance, evidence connection, and feasibility. Decide on a single, class-wide action that is achievable within your resources and time frame.
Steps to Complete the Plan: It is important to allow students to think through the process of action. Again, how you structure the completion of this in the guide depends on the type of action your students complete. If it is an "Everyday Choice," students will complete it on their own. If this is a class-wide project, it would benefit the class to decide on a final procedure and post it somewhere in the classroom for reference. Help the class outline the steps for their chosen action and display them in the classroom.
Anticipating Road Blocks: Help the class anticipate potential obstacles. Discuss as a group or individually, considering available resources and possible partners to overcome these challenges.
Possible Extension:
Again, the action plan can be as large or as small as you desire. An extension for this part of the lesson would be to create an action plan that integrates multiple disciplines. We provide several examples below:
- Public service announcement poster or video- Students create a poster, video or podcast with information on the issue, possible causes, and a call to action. (See example poster)
- Long- or short-term watershed restoration or protection project: Have students spend a certain amount of time each week or month working on the issue identified in the unit. You, partners you identify within the community, or parent volunteers can direct this project. For liability reasons, you will need to clarify whether the project is a school-sanctioned activity or something else.
- Civic Action—Integrate language arts, history, and social science by having students attend a council meeting, school board meeting, or other public space to voice their concerns, propose a solution, or raise awareness in the city/county about the environmental issue your students identified.
Possible Differentiation Adaptations:
It is important to prepare for any academic, social, or physical limitations certain students may encounter when completing any type of action project. Teachers should capitalize on each student's strengths, assigning tasks that match their strengths while making the importance of their role explicit.
Assessment:
Because this lesson has multiple opportunities for written formative assessment (e.g., completing the Road to Action guide), it may be best to ask students to share their answers to the following assessment questions in a think/pair/share activity as a closure to the lesson.
- Why is it important that we base our action plan on data?
- What type of action (from the 4 we discussed) did you plan to take?
- What do you predict will happen if you complete your action plan?
Possible Assessment Extension:
Once your students have completed this unit, we suggest returning weekly to discuss and evaluate progress on the action plan. Possible questions to ask include but are not limited to:
- What steps have you completed in your Action Plan?
- How did it make you feel to act on this issue?
- Is your action impacting the issue in any way? Why do you say that?
- How might you evaluate the impact you (or we) have on the environmental issue?
- Would another action impact this issue more than the one you chose?